By Lucas De Paula
Staff Writer
Ryan Wong (Left) and Andrew Wong (Right)
programmed their app, “TCHS MapApp” under 3 months.
A flood of students swarmed the school entrance enthusiastically for the first day of school as the sultry morning sun beat down. Freshmen, sophomores and new students stepped onto campus for the first time, unsure of class locations. Fortunately, brothers Ryan and Andrew Wong developed a Temple City High School campus map app over the summer to help combat this problem.
“Our main target audience for the app was for newer students who haven’t been on campus and parents who need to get to different parts of the campus,” Ryan Wong said. “As a student myself, I remember how much I struggled to navigate the campus. I did not want others to feel as lost, so I thought an app like the TCHS MapApp would help.”
At the beginning of summer, the two brothers discussed with Mr. Lohman, the high school’s principal at the time, about innovative ways to help the school. As a result, they came up with an idea to make an app to help students navigate the school more effectively called the “TCHS MapApp”.
“As a freshman, the first week of school was definitely nerve-wracking, especially since I have not been in a classroom since seventh grade,” freshman Megan Chan said.” Within my first few days of school, I certainly had trouble finding a few of my classes and even asking some upperclassmen friends for directions when the paper map was too confusing. I am sure a campus navigation app would be really helpful!”
Currently awaiting administration approval for release, this app’s creation was not smooth sailing. For instance, the brothers had difficulty with the formatting the app would have, and the time and effort it would be to code in. Alternatively, they opted to use open-source map technology that allowed for an easier user interface and overall convenience.
Although Wong took computer science classes and had prior experience using Java and Python before starting this particular project, he was primarily self-taught. The app took a total of 150 hours to program from start to finish and will only be available on the Google Play Store.
“I am extremely happy with the outcome of the app since it looks identical to how I envisioned it,” Ryan Wong said. “My dream job is to become a computer engineer. I do really enjoy coding. If there is time, I will possibly start on another project for TCHS.”